This invention relates to a process for producing alloy steel powder, particularly to a process for producing low-oxygen, low-carbon alloy steel powder, in which the oxidation of easily oxidizable elements, such as chromium, manganese, etc. has been suppressed effectively.
Conventional processes for producing steel powder include water atomization, gas atomization and oil atomization. They are all well known in the art. However, they all present problems as mentioned hereinafter when they are used for producing alloy steel powder which contains easily oxidizable elements such as mentioned above: